| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: therefore, MAKE myself known, and first of all learn to know
myself!" Among helpful and charitable people, one almost always
finds the awkward craftiness which first gets up suitably him who
has to be helped, as though, for instance, he should "merit"
help, seek just THEIR help, and would show himself deeply
grateful, attached, and subservient to them for all help. With
these conceits, they take control of the needy as a property,
just as in general they are charitable and helpful out of a
desire for property. One finds them jealous when they are crossed
or forestalled in their charity. Parents involuntarily make
something like themselves out of their children--they call that
Beyond Good and Evil |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: ACT 22:27 Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art
thou a Roman? He said, Yea.
ACT 22:28 And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I
this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.
ACT 22:29 Then straightway they departed from him which should have
examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that
he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.
ACT 22:30 On the morrow, because he would have known the certainty
wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands, and
commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought
Paul down, and set him before them.
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: duty to his diocese and his daughter.
What could he do to revivify his clergy? He wished he had more
personal magnetism, he wished he had a darker and a larger
presence. He wished he had not been saddled with Whippham's
rather futile son as his chaplain. He wished he had a dean
instead of being his own dean. With an unsympathetic rector. He
wished he had it in him to make some resounding appeal. He might
of course preach a series of thumping addresses and sermons,
rather on the lines of "Fors Clavigera," to masters and men, in
the Cathedral. Only it was so difficult to get either masters or
men into the Cathedral.
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: how--but it's the way, in nine cases out of ten, these natives
commit suicide. His tongue was out, poor devil, and the birds
had got at him; I spare you details, he was an ugly sight! I gave
the business six good hours of thinking in this verandah. My
justice had been made a fool of; I don't suppose that I was ever
angrier. Next day, I had the conch sounded and all hands out
before sunrise. One took one's gun, and led the way, with
Obsequiousness. He was very talkative; the beggar supposed
that all was right now he had confessed; in the old schoolboy
phrase, he was plainly 'sucking up' to me; full of protestations
of goodwill and good behaviour; to which one answered one
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